Yemen calls US’s bluff on ending support for Saudi-led coalition

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a member of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, made the remarks in a tweet on Wednesday after the White House informed Congress that it had stopped the US’s full-fledged support for the military campaign.

Washington’s allegation “could only be considered fulfilled” once Saudi Arabia stopped deploying American weapons against Yemen, he said in a tweet.

The war has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis and pushed the entire country close to the brink of outright famine. The aggressors have been trying to restore power to Yemen’s former Riyadh-friendly officials.

The US increased its arms support to the members of the coalition after they launched the war, including by providing them with surgical ammunition that has been used amply to butcher Yemeni civilians.

It also started providing the campaign with military advisory assistance and bombing coordinates, and refueling the coalition’s warplanes mid-air. Washington has only stopped aerial refueling now that the coalition has grown independent of it.

The Saudi-American arms deals have obliged Riyadh to secure American permission before using the weapons, al-Houthi said. That was how the kingdom’s continued deployment of the weapons reflected Washington’s ongoing approval of the aggression, Houthi noted.

He also explained that the US’s potential cessation of the patronage was only one of the steps that had to be taken towards ending Yemen’s plight.

The aggressors also have to end all of their attacks against Yemen, take out all of their forces, end a simultaneous siege that they have been imposing on the country, and compensate the victims, the Yemeni official said.